1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing thereof, a signal transmission/reception method using such a semiconductor device, and a tester apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, semiconductor devices are known which conduct data communication by wireless communication.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-134694 discloses a semiconductor device for communicating data by an electromagnetic induction system. The semiconductor device has a coil antenna and a semiconductor integrated circuit connected to the coil antenna. When a coil antenna connected to a reader/writer is brought close to the semiconductor device, the coil antenna connected to the reader/writer generates an AC magnetic field. The AC magnetic field penetrates the coil antenna in the semiconductor device. An electromotive force is generated between terminals of the antenna by electromagnetic induction, and the semiconductor integrated circuit in the semiconductor device operates.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-311331 discloses a structure in which an integrated circuit and an antenna are formed on the same substrate, and a conductive wire or a conductive film included in the antenna is formed in two layers so as to sandwich the substrate having the integrated circuit formed thereon. Therein, an example is described in which the two layers of the conductive wire are an antenna for supplying power to the integrated circuit and an antenna for transmitting/receiving a signal, respectively.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-228785 discloses a structure in which a coil antenna is disposed in a region outside an outer periphery of a circuit of a semiconductor chip. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-30877 discloses a technique in which a built-in test circuit and a wireless communication circuit are mounted in a semiconductor integrated circuit device, and the built-in test circuit is controlled by a radio signal to conduct a test.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Translation Publication No. 2006-504274 discloses a structure in which a conductive structure is provided as a passive component for mechanically stabilizing an insulation layer against mechanical force in bonding a conductive bonding pad layer. Here, the passive component included in an analog circuit is provided under the bonding pad layer, and a screening layer for preventing coupling of the passive component and the bonding pad layer is provided between the passive component and the bonding pad layer.
The present inventor has recognized as follows. Conventionally, in order to test an internal circuit at a wafer level of a semiconductor device, power is supplied through probing with a probe to a pad for a power source on a surface of a chip of the semiconductor device, and a signal is transmitted/received with a pad for a signal via a probe to test operation of the internal circuit. However, the pad is scratched by a needle of the probe during a probe test, which causes poor connection in bonding the pad later, or, which causes contamination due to shavings of the pad. Further, as the chip size decreases and as the number of pads per chip increases, the pad size and the pitch between the pads decrease, and thus, satisfactory electrical connection between multiple pads and corresponding multiple probe needles becomes difficult accordingly.
In order to avoid such problems, it is preferred to carry out power supply and signal transmission/reception with respect to the internal circuit in a non-contact manner. However, in order to carry out transmission/reception of various kinds of signals from/to the internal circuit using, for example, electromagnetic induction instead of a plurality of pads so as to correspond to input/output signals to/from the plurality of pads, multiple inductors are necessary, and thus, a large footprint is necessary for the inductors. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2007-134694, 2005-311331, and 2005-228785, in a structure in which a coil antenna for signal transmission/reception is disposed on an outer periphery of a chip, multiple antennas can not be disposed. Further, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-30877, only a case in which one coil for an antenna is disposed with respect to one chip is assumed, and a carrier wave of a radio signal input from the external is used to generate power. Still further, in the passive component disclosed in Japanese Patent Translation Publication No. 2006-504274, a radio signal is not assumed to be input/output from/to the external and the screening layer is provided between the passive component and the bonding pad layer such that a signal can not be input/output from/to the external.